Monday, June 13, 2016

New week, new Monday (YAY for Mondays off work!) and today I have a bunch of mini reviews for Mark These Book(s) Monday to try and clear out the backlog of books read and not reviewed, and to try and not procastinate, because sometimes writing proper long reviews can be daunting if you have many pending, but writing mini-reviews is always more manageable!

Ivory & Bone was one of my most highly awaited debuts of the year and so it counts towards my 2016 Debut Author Challenge that I had failed at updating as of late!

I really hope Gwenda will be writing more Lois Lane stories because I'd read, nay, devour them all! They're, fun, intriguing and with a touch of the fantastical that is so in line with the stories about superheroes, but with it being about a girl that doesn't mind getting in trouble for doing what's right.

It is true that the cases that Lois has to investigate remind me of the Smallville TV show, mostly because it deals with the extraordinary and have plenty of science (sometimes more probable, sometimes more improbable) but instead of having a young S guy solving it with his gang, we have our inquisitive Lois with her nose for news figuring out things.

This time it's not just a bad guy to fight and innocents to save, but Lois has to deal with events that might affect her newly formed friendships, and although she knows how to deal with news and bad guys, she has many more doubts on how to deal with problems that might affect her friends and her relationship with them. I loved how important the friendships have become for her and how she's ready to fight for her friends and how she wants them to be true to themselves and how she puts herself on the line for her friends and their family.

Once again the Lane sisters relationship is showcased and Lois has to reflect on what she wants and doesn't want to happen. She makes a choice and works to make sure that she shows love and appreciation. More than one sibling relationship is important in this book, and both end up coming up stronger after communication and putting into it. Quite a bit of food for thought there too.

Add to that the wonderful relationship that she has with SmallvilleGuy and you have me impatiently waiting for the next one! I just cannot get enough of the virtual or chat interactions of those two and I'm dying of impatience till they get to meet face to face!

We also got a new character introduced (technically we heard about them/him in the previous book too) and I have my strong suspicions about who he'd be from the Superman stories, but I cannot wait to see if I'm right in the book(s) to come!

With all its amazing references and wonderful humour and well, I don't know how to put into words how much I absolutely adored reading My Lady Jane! I just need the Lady Janies to write MOAR books because these three ladies have done a brilliant and hilarious job together!!

I had read a few lines here and there, and a lil preview of the first three chapters and I was so excited because I was sure I was going to love it, and I'm glad to say that the full book didn't disappoint. My Lady Jane changes history and adds a big fantasy/supernatural element to the story we all know, but it does so in a very seamless why!

I loved how we get three different POVs, each of them very distinctive and with an unique feel (must confess I have no idea what author wrote each POV, but they all did an amazing job) but my fave had to be our dear bookish and NOT headless Jane Grey herself. I loved her love for books and how when she got nervous she kept spouting synonyms!

The humour and references (Pop culture and others) were superb and totally on point and then there's the hate to love and romantic tension between the Lady Jane Grey and her husband G. Marriage of convenience that doesn't start exactly right, but I loved their banter and their interactions.

I've seen some references in other reviews about the size and lenght of the book at 500 pages, but I must confess that since I read my Kindle copy, I barely noticed the lenght, and it didn't feel like I was reading a long book at all!

Ivory and Bone is what I'd call a Pili-bait book. Anything ancient history or pre-historical is very dear to my heart because although I've always wanted to be a nurse, my back up plan if I couldn't get into nursing school was doing a history/archeology degree!

So any books that are set in ancient history and/or prehistory have me making grabby hands. If we had that one of my most beloved series of all times is the Clan of the Cave Bear books by Jean Auel... well, let's just say that my first reaction when hearing about this book was "GIMME!!" and so it was one of my most highly awaited debuts!

I'm very happy to report that I loved it as much as I hoped I would! I was very surprised when I heard that it was told on second person POV, because it's used very sparingly, but it worked so very well with the narrative and the plot for this one! We see everything from behind Kol's eyes, and that's another rarity, since it's a male POV. The story is coloured by his perceptions, his prejudices, his fears and his loves. What we know about other characters is what Kol knows, consciously or subconsciously, and we find out more about other characters and the plot as Kol does.

Julie Eshbaugh did a great job of giving us plenty of details and information that shows off she has done her research properly without bogging down the narrative or the plot and without making the storytelling too descriptive. It shows us that life and death are very much the same side of a coin that can flip at any given time, food can kill you, your clan needs everyone to survive and adapting and changing can be the key to continue living.

I was surprised when I reached the ending because of the lack of cliffhanger and the resolution given to the story. It is the first book of a trilogy, and it does give us closure to the plot and the story, although there's also enough to continue telling the story of Kol and his clan, which I am very much looking foraward to! Very well deserved 5 stars to this one!

I bought Lady Jane on audio after seeing your review on Goodreads. With all these amazing authors, the humor and everything else, there was really no risk involved. I'm curious about Ivory & Bone, but unlike you, I tend to avoid ancient history.

Great reviews! I am reading Ivory and Bone right now and really liking it. 5 stars is a good sign. I really like the format for one think. It's not totally second person but it has that kind of vibe. And I really need to read My Lady Jane. Everyone says it's so funny. That plus the historical aspect makes it a must read for me.Cassi @ My Thoughts Literally

I didn't know you read The Clan Of the Cave Bear books. I only read the first three and then forgot about them after Sebastian was born. How many did you read? I should probably look into reading the rest. :)

Yaaay :D Lovely reviews Pili. <3 SO glad you liked these books :D I also really loved My Lady Jane. <3 It is SO GOOD :D So happy you loved it too. Yesss. But yeah. I did not love Ivory and Bone, lol. But happy you weren't disappointed like me :) Thank you for sharing all your lovely thoughts about these books. <3 Hugs.